DAY ONE: Selected Poems / by Mac Maclean

full on heart stuff

 

get in on this.
who hasn’t?
I’m asleep and in on it.
dad is on a table
without a chest.
it is open instead.
I don’t really know that but it has to be
dad on the table
the doctor holding a paring knife.
he is ready to rumble.
what does he think dads are replaceable
seasonal like pears or peaches
but no one is about to tell him the knife is wrong.
every surgery he’s ever had happens at the same time.
like the eyeball one. I don’t like to think about it
but I liked the emails he sent after
“very ard to tpe his way. yoiur old da wll get bettre.”
then heart blockage removal surgery
which is a surgery they do so you are ready
for more of them later
or so you are ready.
and the oral ones. the gold-looking tooth from the military
days he prayed for the dead and his tooth rotted.
oops he says about it.
he is going to die
but not right now.
and me too honestly.
who hasn’t.
you have to get in on this
God says to everybody at the beginning
and no one is about to tell Him the knife is wrong 

 

Mac Maclean is a poet and senior at Oberlin College. They co-host a queer radio hour and are eagerly waiting for the radio to make its Big Comeback! People can tune in on Fridays at 1pm on WOBC.org/listen and check their face @hell.evator on Instagram.